in germany members of the social democratic party have voted on whether to enter a new grand coalition with conservatives results will be announced on sunday if the party joins the coalition germany will finally have a new government five months after elections. italian political parties have made final appeals to voters ahead of general elections on sunday the vote pits a right wing coalition led by former prime minister silvio berlusconi against the center left alliance led by another former prime minister matteo renzi the other main players the antiestablishment five star movement most observers expect a hung parliament. hundreds of people attended the funeral of slain slovak journalist on saturday he was working on a story about italian organized crime in slovakia when he and his fiance were found

shot to death seven italian nationals detained in connection with the murders have been released. on twitter us president donald trump has threatened a new tax on european cars imported into the us this is further raised fears of an international trade war after he announced steel and aluminum tariffs last week the moves on trade have spurred international condemnation but are in line with trump's campaign promises much leadership on this. beat. instead. it's all about the state it was in so much. it's all about george chance to discover the world from different perspectives. join us and inspired by distinctive instagram or others at g.w. stories topping each week on instagram. you're

going to is executive director of environmental action germany we'll be talking about the arrogance of the auto companies the failure of politics and the power his organization has that welcome you i'm sure to look. at your organization has won a victory after a court gave german cities the go ahead to impose driving bans to curb air pollution even put you on the front page of the new york times. times. how do you feel when you take on big companies and the government and when how long did you celebrate on tuesday. there wasn't a lot of time for celebration but i had a glass of wine that evening alone in my favorite come down a bit it was a great day for clean air in germany thirteen years for that we filed every

possible legal challenge and won them all but this was confirmation that it applied to all other cities. not that it's good. you've had some successes when you started working for environmental protection when you were still a student. you helped to introduce deposits on cans and bottles in germany but it's tuesday's decision your greatest success. it would have i think it is have been fighting for clean air for three decades but i put it up there with the introduction of catalytic converters or my campaign twenty years ago to bring sulphur free fuels to germany and europe with most big steps. but let's just say that apart from the publicity and the social impact this victory of clean air over the interests of the car companies has done just a bit more. but why was this court ruling necessary to you why pollutants limits have been in effect since two thousand and ten but they didn't

apply in germany they were only on paper the guy who was responsible for that i think they'll be fine for them now this is good although if that's the problem the limits applied in germany obviously politicians often don't employ and laws or regulations anymore especially if they don't match the interests of large industrial companies. the government starts behaving like a common criminal that doesn't respect the law and that is why have we won every single case for thirteen years partly because we have good lawyers but above all as we just said it's the law we have a limit to be met it prevents thousands of deaths. the courts have decided that this is true but the government is violating this law and would just offer these are those are strong words to accuse the government of criminal behavior are you saying that the german government puts the interests of auto companies above the common good. absolutely and i can prove it by the automotive industry

rules germany through the individual states and through the chancellor's office. carmakers chancellor angela merkel has perfected that role. she is directly committed to automotive interests in the e.u. . and she told state officials in california in two thousand and ten that they had to relax their emissions limits were saying they're bad for the german auto industry think thank. you but that's not her job she should work for the good of the people not the profit interests of a small group of companies to go into the name of. your close friend and former colleague on environmental protection matters is the bottom of it and back state premier then free trade is he also in the auto industries pocket and. yes even to be honest the green party state premier faces this problem but i still like him despite the contradictions. you're still close with with the hope of course is

it i still like him and we get along well but this situation demonstrates the power of the automotive industry like a state premier comes into office and says fewer cars are better for the environment and more cars you'll get plenty of heat from the industry and you'll soon behave like his predecessors. and that applies to the c.s.u. the s.p.d. and all political parties in germany. when the industry has so much power and can also play the jobs card with the politicians as blackmail. that canard and those always going to have. the german car industry generates a huge amount of revenue and a lot of jobs depend on that industry but let's take a look at the admissions fraud scandal. and the others treated air pollution limits as a technical hurdle. that's just plain wrong. lawmakers taking the right approach to deal with these situations and if they can if the nine

. we do a lot of attention to this scam in two thousand and seven and in two thousand and eleven we gave the german government detailed information about the w's one eighty nine engine which later became notorious in the california case and how this engine produced such different results on the road compared to the lab where the cheating took place. but the politicians weren't interested in the money they wanted to help the car industry. auto executives told them it was becoming more expensive to meet emissions limits and asked them to help by turning a blind eye gentlemen and there was obviously a gentleman's agreement here as long as you meet the test standards we won't look at the road results so despite our demands they never did and that with that. but it often takes two sides to commit fraud the cheaters and those who agree to be

cheated. for example every driver knows that they'll never come close to the fuel mileage listed on the sticker. what does that say about us germans is environmental protection important only on paper and not such a big deal in practice we live in that we have become a bit complacent for years germany has been a leader in conservation and environmental protection and we still have that reputation abroad we've convinced ourselves that we're better than a lot of others but the fact of the matter is that on climate protection and c o two reduction we've made no progress in recent years. you know. a lot of countries have overtaken us in other areas too and right now we're in the bottom served of e.u. members on all sorts of environmental standards thank you. thought we also a bit fickle on environmental protection a few years ago the diesel was considered

a clean engine but not anymore. still lots of people trusted those claims and bought diesel cars. because they think there's always the. but i think it's even worse than that consumers are still quite concerned about the environment and they simply trusted the auto industry and the uncertainties one.